White Sox trade Garcia to Phillies
09 December, 2006
The Chicago White Sox have sent starting pitcher Freddy Garcia to the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for right-hander Gavin Floyd and a player to be named.
The player to be named turned out to be pitcher Gio Gonzalez who was traded by the White Sox to Philadelphia a year ago in a deal for Jim Thome.
Chicago general manager Kenny Williams named that player after the deal was finalized, "It's 11 o'clock at night, what do you want?" he said.
Garcia went 17-9 in Chicago last season with a 4.53 ERA. He was part of the White Sox World Series winning team, pitching in Game 4 as the White Sox clinched their first title since 1917.
Williams went on to say, "We went out on a limb a few years ago to trade for him. I have no regrets,".
"He handled the news with class. He's excited to be back with Pat Gillick. We're going to miss Freddy Garcia.
"But where we are in our evolution, where we are with our ballclub now is such where we needed to create room for what we also knew is a very special pitcher in Brandon McCarthy. We realized that if we're going to have any sort of sustained success, we're going to have to filter in some of the young players, and we think we've acquired two special ones."
Garcia will join a full rotation of starting pitchers including former Texas Rangers right-hander Adam Eaton who signed a $24.5 million, three-year contract only a week ago.
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